Brushing your teeth three times a day could ward off diabetes, research suggests

Brushing your teeth three times a day could ward off diabetes, research suggests.

While it may sound farfetched, oral hygiene has long been linked to good heart health.

Allowing teeth to decay is thought to trigger gum inflammation, with “swelling” also playing an “important role in the development of diabetes”.

To learn more, scientists from Seoul Hospital looked at the oral health of more than 188,000 people over 10 years.

They found those who brushed their teeth at least three times a day were 8% less likely to develop either type 1 or 2 diabetes.

Gum disease raised the risk by 9%, while having 15 or more missing teeth boosted the odds by 21%.

“Frequent tooth brushing may decrease the risk of new-onset diabetes, and the presence of periodontal [gum] disease and increased number of missing teeth may increase that risk,” the scientists wrote in the journal Diabetologia.

“Overall, improving oral hygiene may be associated with a decreased risk of occurrence of new-onset diabetes.”

Last year, 3.9 million people in the UK had been diagnosed with diabetes. Around 90% of patients have type 2.

In the US, 34.2 million had the condition that year, of whom just 1.6 million were type 1.

Type 2 diabetes occurs when the insulin made by the pancreas does not work properly or not enough is produced to effectively lower blood sugar levels. It is associated with carrying too much weight.

Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disorder that comes about when the body does not produce insulin.

Left untreated, both have been linked to heart disease, kidney damage, blindness and even limb amputations.